Electric regulator



L. SYKES. ELECTRIC REGULATOR.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. I8, 1918.

Patented Jan. 13, 1920.

2 SHEETSSHEET I.

Leonari s y f IN VEN TOR.

A TTORNE Y.

L. SYKES.

ELECTRIC REGULATOR.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. I8. 1918.

1,327,642, Patented Jan. 13, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- IN VEN TOR. L Sonar-d g ATTORNEYS.

LEONARD SYKES, OF FORT WAYNE, INDIANA.

ELECTRIC REGULATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 13, 1920.

Application filed January is, 1918. Serial No. 212,5c5.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEONARD SYKES, a subject of George V, King of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at Fort Wayne, in the county of Allen and State of Indiana, have invented new and useful Improvements in Electric Regulators, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to regulators for controlling the brilliancy of incandescent electric lamps and other electrical devices wherein a contact is caused to travel over a resistance for gradually reducing or increasing the amount of electric current supplied to the lamp or other device. In some regulators of the type described the practice heretofore has been to install the resistance winding in a porcelain body or between two such bodies, the contact being caused to travel over a surface of the winding from Which the insulation has been removed. The difficulty I have encountered with such constructions is that it is practically impossible to secure uniform porcelain bodies, the result being that it is diflicult to standardize the parts for manufacture. Another difficulty is to secure equal expansion of the parts when made of various materials and while under the influence of heat generated in the resistance coil.

The object of the invention is to provide a simple and cheaply constructed regulator in which I overcome many of the difficulties heretofore encountered.

In the drawings, I illustrate an embodiment of the invention in which Figure 1 is a vertical cross-section of a device constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a cross-section on line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 a plan view of the resistance carrying member; Fig. 4 a cross-section on line 44 of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 a plan view of the contact actuating member; Fig. 6 a crosssection on line 66 of Fig. 5; Fig. 7 a plan view of the spring and Fig. 8 a cross-section on line 8-8 of Fig. 7.

Referring to the drawings, 10 is an exteriorly threaded shell inclosing a porcelain or other insulating member 11, the shell. and member constituting a plug adapted to be inserted into the usual socket connected to the wiring in a building. The porcelain projects through the bottom of shell 10 and two opposite sides 12 of the projecting portion 13 of the porcelain are flat, the other sides being rounded. Insulating washer 14:

encircles projection 13 and insulates shell or housing 15 from shell 10, which housing 1s of inverted cup shape, projection 13 extending into the housing. I Insulating washer 16 bears against the inner face of the top of the housing and bent down portions 17 of the bottom of shell 10 are passed through washer 14, through suitable apertures in the top of shell 15 and are engaged under washer 16. The bent down portions 17 do not contact with shell 15 and serve to secure the latter shell and shell 10 together and also serve as conductors of electricity as hereafter described.

Resistance 18 is wound on a spool 19 consisting of an upper metallic plate 20 (Figs. 8-4.) which is cupped or depressed and apertured in its central portion. The wall 21 supplied by the cupping of plate 20 furnishesa surface or member upon which the resistance is wound. One end of the resistance is connected to plate 20. The lower plate 22 of the spool is similarly cupped or depressed and apertured in its central portion to provide a depending collar or boss 23. The apertures in plates 20 and 22 have opposite flat walls which engage the corre sponding walls on projection 12 of porcelain 11 and prevent all rotation'of the spool thereon. I preferably wind the resistance in an insulating medium, such as bakelite, which when heated to a proper degree hardens and not only insulates the wire from plates 20 and 22 and one turn from another but also unites the plates and insulates them from each other and produces a neat spool.

A radial slot 24 is provided in plate 22 which extends entirely across the resistance coil, the outer end of the slot havlng a lateral extension 25. The inner end of the slot extends beneath the bottom 20" of the depressed portion of plate 20. The insulation on the resistance wire is scraped off the portion thereof exposed in slot 24, but the insulation is not removed from the wire exposed in extension 25 of the slot.

A metallic disk or plate 26 is centrally spool 19. A flange 27 depends from the periphery of plate 26 and suitable insulation 27 preferably L-shaped in cross-section, is secured to the outer face of the flange. Chains 28 are secured at a suitable common point to the horizontal portion of insulation member 27 and extend through apertures .29 in shell 15. By pulling on these chains apertured to revolubly engage boss 23'on the disk may be rotated in opposite direction. A cam groove 30 is suitably formed in the upper face of disk 26 and a metallic ball 31 is free to roll in the groove and also in slot 2st. Cam groove 30 is of such form and length as to cause the ball to roll in slot 2% from one end thereof to the other and into extension 25. The ball, when at the inner end of slot 524:, makes contact with the bottom 20 of plate 20 and thus completes electrical circuit between that plate and disk 26. When the ball is in extension 25 of the slot it is in contact with insulation on the resistance and the electrical circuit between the plate and spool is broken. At all points between the two ends of the slot the ball is in contact with the bare resistance. As the ball travels away from the inner end of the slot more and more of the resistance is connected in circuit between disk 26 and plate 20 of spool 19.

To hold disk 26 in proper position to insure contact of the ball with the resistance I provide spring 32 preferably of spider form and centrally apertured to engage over boss 33 formed in the top of threaded lamp socket 34:. Boss 33 abuts the lower end of boss 23. An insulating disk or washer 85 abuts the inner face of the threaded shell of socket 34 and a plate 36 is adapted to be contacted by the lamp base or plug to be inserted into the socket.

Bolt 37 passes through the plate 36 and through porcelain 11 and nut 38 when tightened on the upper end of the bolt draws all the parts into proper relative position and holds them in that position.

In operation and with the device engaged in a socket properly connected to service wires and with a lamp inserted in socket 34c and with the ball at the inner end of slot at, in which position of the ball the lamp is burning with full brilliancy. Ihe electrical circuit is through bolt 37 and plate 36, the lamp, the threaded shell of socket 34', bosses 33 and 23, spring 32, disk 26, ball 31, plate 20 and shell 10 of the plug. As the disk is rotated counter-clockwise 5) the ball is caused to roll in slot 24: toward the outer end of the slot and over the resistance, cutting into the circuit more and more of the resistance as the rotation of the disk is continued and the brilliancy of the lamp is gradually reduced to the desired point or extinguished entirely if the rotation of the disk is continued until the ball has been rolled into extension 525 of slot 24, where it contacts with the insulation about the resistance and breaks the electrical circuit to the lamp.

In this manner any degree of intensity in the lamp may be obtained up to the maximum candle power of the lamp.

Any suitable insulation for the resistance coil which will insulate it from the spool and any suitable means for insulating the two plates 20, 22 of the spool from each other will sufiice for my requirements. Since the resistance coil-carrying spool, the rolling contact and the rotatable disk are made of the same material the expansion of the same under the influence of the heat generated in the resistance coil is uniform therein when the regulator is in use.

The regulator may be readily applied to any electrical circuit whore regulation of the supply of electrical current is desirable, the adaptation of the same to an electric light being only one of the many possible uses of the regulator.

What I claim is.

1. In an electric regulator the combination of a metallic member, a resistance coil wound thereon and connected at one end to the member, a contact adapted to be rolled bodily across a portion 01 the resistance coil, a metallic revolubly mounted member engaging the contact and adapted to cooperate with the metallic member for causing the contact to roll in a radial direction across the resistance coil, and means engaging the revolubly mounted metallic member adapted to force the same toward the first named metallic member.

2. In an electric regulator, the combination of a fixed metallic spool, a resistance coil wound on the spool and connected at one end to the spool. a resistance coil wound on the spool and connected at one end thereto, a spherical contact adapted to be rolled across a portion of the resistance coil, a revolubly mounted metallic member engaging the contact and adapted to cooperate with the spool for causing the contact to traverse the resistance coil in a radial direction, means to rotate the revolubly mounted member and means engaging the revolubly mounted member and adapted to force the same toward the spool.

3. In an electric regulator the combination of a plug, a two part metallic spool, means to insulate the parts from each other, a resistance coil wound between the two parts and connected to one of them, the other part having a radial slot therein which exposes a portion of the resistance coil and a portion of the first named part, a depending boss on the slotted part, a cam-carrying disk revolubly mounted on the boss, a revoluble contact member engaged in the slot and adapted to be rolled therein by the cam disk, a spring engaging: the disk and tending to force it toward the spool, a lamp socket having connection with the spring and the boss and a bolt extending through the plug and socket for securing them together and placing tension on the spring.

4. In an electric regulator, the combination of a fixed metallic spool, a resistance coil wound on the spool and connected at one end thereto, the spool having a radial slot therein for exposing a portion of the resistance coil, a spherical contact adapted to be rolled in the slot in engagement With the coil, a revolubly mounted cam carrying means engaging the contact and adapted to cause the contact to roll in said slot, a spring engaging the cam carrying means and adapted to force the same toward the spool and a chain connected to the cam carrying means for rotating it.

5. In an electric regulator the combination of a metallic member, a resistance coil Wound thereon and connected at one end to the member, a contact adapted to be rolled 15 bodily across a portion of the resistance coil, a metallic revolubly mounted member engaging the contact and adapted to co6perate With the metallic member for causing the contact to roll in a radial direction across 20 In Witness whereof I hereunto subscribe 25 my name this llth day of January, 1918.

LEONARD SYKES. 

